I found another cellphone for seniors when I surfed on the web today. This time this handset was manufactured by Nokia a company that has made its mark on the mobile phone industry by offering easy to use handsets. It's not surprising that Nokia phones have the potential to be suited for needs of the elderly.

The phone is the Nokia 6085 and it has many of the attributes that would make it a suitable mobile phone for senior citizens. This mobile phone was design to be release on the mass market and is not an elite or fashion phone. This also means that the Nokia 6085 offers a down to earth or simple design that makes it a good choice for seniors. Let's break down the attributes that makes it a good mobile phone for seniors.

Mobile phone reviewers have noted that this device offers good call quality making it suitable for seniors or any customer. Call quality is an essential attribute for any cell phone for seniors because the elderly use handsets primarily to make phone calls. They don't need phones that offer Mobile TV or other high-end features. They need a device that would help them make clear calls to their friends and family.

The Nokia 6085's 1.8-inch (128x160 pixels) internal display is subpar. The graphics and photos were grainy and the colors were dim. These description does not really help seniors who normally weak eyes. However, the handset makes up for it by offering simple and user friendly menus. No frills and basic menus are ideal for seniors who will have a hard time dealing with sophisticated menus. The fonts on the display can also be altered to help senior users to see the information displayed on the phone.

The navigation array and keypad on the Nokia 6085 are well-designed for use by senior users because they are easy to use. The keys are large and spaced far apart from each other. Seniors who use this phone will have no problem in dialing the number of friends and family or to navigate the menus.

The Nokia 6085 is often categories as a camera phone but its VGA built-in camera is not one of it's strong points. The camera features aren't too extensive and picture quality was strictly average. However, a camera is not a priority in choosing a cellphone for seniors so the 6085 is one of the best choices for senior citizen users. Tune in for more mobile phone seniors in my next posts.

I found another cellphone for seniors when I surfed on the web today. This time this handset was manufactured by Nokia a company that has made its mark on the mobile phone industry by offering easy to use handsets. It's not surprising that Nokia phones have the potential to be suited for needs of the elderly.

The phone is the Nokia 6085 and it has many of the attributes that would make it a suitable mobile phone for senior citizens. This mobile phone was design to be release on the mass market and is not an elite or fashion phone. This also means that the Nokia 6085 offers a down to earth or simple design that makes it a good choice for seniors. Let's break down the attributes that makes it a good mobile phone for seniors.

Mobile phone reviewers have noted that this device offers good call quality making it suitable for seniors or any customer. Call quality is an essential attribute for any cell phone for seniors because the elderly use handsets primarily to make phone calls. They don't need phones that offer Mobile TV or other high-end features. They need a device that would help them make clear calls to their friends and family.

The Nokia 6085's 1.8-inch (128x160 pixels) internal display is subpar. The graphics and photos were grainy and the colors were dim. These description does not really help seniors who normally weak eyes. However, the handset makes up for it by offering simple and user friendly menus. No frills and basic menus are ideal for seniors who will have a hard time dealing with sophisticated menus. The fonts on the display can also be altered to help senior users to see the information displayed on the phone.

The navigation array and keypad on the Nokia 6085 are well-designed for use by senior users because they are easy to use. The keys are large and spaced far apart from each other. Seniors who use this phone will have no problem in dialing the number of friends and family or to navigate the menus.

The Nokia 6085 is often categories as a camera phone but its VGA built-in camera is not one of it's strong points. The camera features aren't too extensive and picture quality was strictly average. However, a camera is not a priority in choosing a cellphone for seniors so the 6085 is one of the best choices for senior citizen users. Tune in for more mobile phone seniors in my next posts.

What if somebody is monitoring all you activities on your computer ? What if he/she gets control of all your confidential data, like your logins/passwords or PIN of your online bank account ? Well the threat is very much real.

Keylogger softwares if installed on a computer it can monitor all the activities on it. The Keylogger will record every single character typed and have it save to a text file. It also tracks what application are launched, sent emails, the visited websites, and save information typed in the forms. These keyloggers could put your valuable and confidential information at risk. So if you are using a public computer via an internet cafe, library computer or airport lounge computer the threat becomes more real.

Now let me talk about the keylogger software. If somebody needs to hack your valuable information or your user login / password, all they would do is install an invisible software on the public computer, and when i say invisible.. its invisible for for CTRL+ALT+DEL (Windows 98/Me/NT/Win2k/WinXP), invisible in Windows Explorer, invisible in msconfig, so it becomes more difficult for the victim to know if he is being monitored.

Although keylogger softwares would be dangerous on public computers for misuse, this might be useful at home PCs where small kids can me monitored on their web habits. This is one of the simplest and readily available software, Family Keylogger. The other one being Powered Keylogger.

Now let me talk about the keylogger hardware. An easily available one in the market, its the USB Keyboard Keylogger. Its small, easy to install, its installed between your keyboard connection and system CPU. Once installed it can track and record all keystrokes in it's internal memory. These keystrokes can later be retrieved using any text editor. Which means you confidential data can be compromised.

However a physical inspection of the computer would help you to trace out any keylogger hardware. These hardware may soon become a challenge in schools and offices as these devices getting very affordable and widely available in markets.

However all said an done... here the challenge is... all these keyloggers are difficult to be traced. Does that mean no one should even access even their email account via a public computer ? Well not exactly... there is a method by which you can trick a keylogger. Any guess ?? post in your guess via comments. or if you would like to know how. email/post me your email id with subject:Keylogger hack. and i would respond..

I have mentioned in one of my posts that Sprint Nextel's Direct Connect mobile phones are popular with seniors because they need to push one button to connect to family and friends. I decided to take a closer look at one of these Direct Phones, the the Motorola ic502 to see why it's popular with elderly mobile phone customers.

However, before we can explore the phone I thin it would help to have some background knowledge on Sprint Nextel's Direct Connect service. This service allows customers to connect with co-workers, family and friends in under a second. How is this done? Simple, Direct Connect mobile phones allow users to make a call to anyone in the push-to-talk network by pressing a single button.

Now let's proceed with the Motorola ic502 or the Motorola Buzz. This handset is the first CDMA/iDEN hybrid phone. It uses iDEN for walkie-talkie functions and CDMA for voice and data. Let's explore the reasons why the Motorola ic502 is a popular cell phone for seniors.

I think that senior cititzens like this phone primarily of its Direct Connect capability. The Motorola Buzz supports Nextel's Direct Connect walkie-talkie service (including Group Connect, which lets you chat with up to 20 others at once, via PTT). It also has Direct Talk, which allows out-of-network walkie-talkie chat with another Direct Talk handset at a range of up to six miles.

Seniors Appreciate the simplicity that comes with the phone. They can make a call by simply pressing a button. And the best cellphones for seniors are simple or basic phones because they are easy to use. They don't have to go through complicated actions to make calls which is a benefit because seniors do not have the sharpest memories.

The design of the Motorola ic502 Buzz is also a factor that makes it a suitable mobile phone for senior citizens. It feels comfortable in the hand and has rubberized sidings that add some extra durability. More importantly, it has high resistance for dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, low pressure and solar radiation. This means that it can withstand being dropped by the frail fingers of an elderly person.

This Sprint Direct Conjnect mobile phone for seniors also scores points with its navigation buttons and keypad. The Motorola Buzz have large buttons that are tactile and easy to use. It also has keypad buttons that are well-designed for use by the elderly. This handset has large and clearly separate keys. Dialing is easy with this phone because the keys are raised slightly above the surface of the phone. The weak eyes of senior citizens will benefit from backlit keys with large numerals.

It's easy to see why the Motorola ic502 is a popular cell phone for senior citizens. It's design fits the needs of senior users and it offers an easy and simple way to make calls.

I have mentioned in one of my posts that Sprint Nextel's Direct Connect mobile phones are popular with seniors because they need to push one button to connect to family and friends. I decided to take a closer look at one of these Direct Phones, the the Motorola ic502 to see why it's popular with elderly mobile phone customers.

However, before we can explore the phone I thin it would help to have some background knowledge on Sprint Nextel's Direct Connect service. This service allows customers to connect with co-workers, family and friends in under a second. How is this done? Simple, Direct Connect mobile phones allow users to make a call to anyone in the push-to-talk network by pressing a single button.

Now let's proceed with the Motorola ic502 or the Motorola Buzz. This handset is the first CDMA/iDEN hybrid phone. It uses iDEN for walkie-talkie functions and CDMA for voice and data. Let's explore the reasons why the Motorola ic502 is a popular cell phone for seniors.

I think that senior cititzens like this phone primarily of its Direct Connect capability. The Motorola Buzz supports Nextel's Direct Connect walkie-talkie service (including Group Connect, which lets you chat with up to 20 others at once, via PTT). It also has Direct Talk, which allows out-of-network walkie-talkie chat with another Direct Talk handset at a range of up to six miles.

Seniors Appreciate the simplicity that comes with the phone. They can make a call by simply pressing a button. And the best cellphones for seniors are simple or basic phones because they are easy to use. They don't have to go through complicated actions to make calls which is a benefit because seniors do not have the sharpest memories.

The design of the Motorola ic502 Buzz is also a factor that makes it a suitable mobile phone for senior citizens. It feels comfortable in the hand and has rubberized sidings that add some extra durability. More importantly, it has high resistance for dust, shock, vibration, temperature extremes, low pressure and solar radiation. This means that it can withstand being dropped by the frail fingers of an elderly person.

This Sprint Direct Conjnect mobile phone for seniors also scores points with its navigation buttons and keypad. The Motorola Buzz have large buttons that are tactile and easy to use. It also has keypad buttons that are well-designed for use by the elderly. This handset has large and clearly separate keys. Dialing is easy with this phone because the keys are raised slightly above the surface of the phone. The weak eyes of senior citizens will benefit from backlit keys with large numerals.

It's easy to see why the Motorola ic502 is a popular cell phone for senior citizens. It's design fits the needs of senior users and it offers an easy and simple way to make calls.

In todays times staying in touch with friends is very simple, either via various social networking websites or via any internet messenger. However the prerequisite is, you and your friend both need access to internet to be online and communicate via services provided on internet. Well, not exactly..anymore.. the later part "require access to internet" is gonna be a thing of the past.

A newly released application does the trick. Its called the Peersonalizer. With this application along with a downloadable software called WiPeer, you can detect Facebook friends and their friends in the vicinity if they have also installed the application. Researchers at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology have come up with this application that makes it possible to chat with friends without accessing internet.

WiPeer and Peersonalizer not only allows friends to chat but also share files and directories and play collaborative games. WiPeer can make direct wireless (WiFi) connection between computers within a range of roughly 300 meters without using any intermediary device like a router. However the limitation is that WiPeer currently works with Windows XP only.

Peersonalizer uses technology that can also be applied to other social networking sites such as Orkut, MySpace, Friendster and LinkedIn.

To use this application, you need to download the WiPeer application,available for free from here

Grid computing provides a way of sharing computer resources such as processing and storage capacity for solving massive computational problems. The resources may include a dedicated cluster in an organization's computer room, an unmanaged cluster of workstations in the next building, or potentially a home PC on the other side of the world.

Grid computing is the next evolution of enterprise technology architectures, and will furthermore revolutionize how businesses think about and manage their computing resources. More so than client/server or Internet computing, the technology will be more of a revolution in computing architectures and could spark a revival of the entire technology industry.

Perhaps a more accurate way to look at grid computing is to visualise all the systems in an enterprise working together to create a powerful virtual mainframe, giving an organisation unprecedented access and control over computing and data resources, not only within the network but also across the enterprise. The grid virtualises the underlying technology, so the user essentially sees one large computer.

Watch grid computing introduction video.

Imagine being able to cut the processing time of your physics experiments, or the calculation time of your mathematical simulations from days to just seconds.

Royal Dutch Shell created a grid infrastructure for its seismic interpretation applications that cuts the time needed to process seismic data while improving the quality of the data, thus allowing the company’s employees to focus upon key problems.

A short video describing the advantages that Grid computing can generate for businesses.

In my last post I described AT&T efforts to reach senior cell phone users through mobile phones and services. One of the ways the company reached out to elderly companies was through the adaptation of the Universal Design. This led to the creation of good cell phones for seniors as well as other products and applications that can be beneficial to senior citizens.

One of these products senior-friendly products is called Mobile Speak. I hope to tackle this feature and see how it can help the elderly to use cellphones for seniors and other mobile phone related products.

Mobile Speak is a software designed to enhance the functionality of some of AT&T's most popular wireless devices for users with who are blind or have low vision. This type of softwares will obviously benefit seniors because elderly people have poor vision and some have unfortunately lost them due to sickness or old age.

AT&T's Mobile Speak is a powerful full-fledged screen reader that offers an easy-to-learn command structure. This software also offers intuitive speech feedback in several languages, and Braille support that can be used with or without speech.

This special screen reader for mobile phones for seniors automatically detects information that the blind user should know in a similar way a user with full sight would easily find highlighted items or key areas of the screen at a glance.

Mobile Speak supports these applications and functions:

Speed dial, call lists and contacts

Text messaging

Calendar, tasks, notes, and calculator

Internet browser

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Voice Recorder, Media Player, voice speed dial and voice command

Phone/device settings, profiles, alarms, and ringtones

These are the curently supported devices which can be good mobile phones for seniors:

Cingular 3125

Nokia N75

Nokia E62

Samsung Blackjack (with Windows Mobile version 5)

Pantech Duo

There is no doubt that this software can enhance any mobile device that is designed for senior citizens. The ability to make it easier for seniors to read information is a key attribute for any cell phone for seniors. I will feature more softwares and services that are meant for seniors in my next posts.

In my last post I described AT&T efforts to reach senior cell phone users through mobile phones and services. One of the ways the company reached out to elderly companies was through the adaptation of the Universal Design. This led to the creation of good cell phones for seniors as well as other products and applications that can be beneficial to senior citizens.

One of these products senior-friendly products is called Mobile Speak. I hope to tackle this feature and see how it can help the elderly to use cellphones for seniors and other mobile phone related products.

Mobile Speak is a software designed to enhance the functionality of some of AT&T's most popular wireless devices for users with who are blind or have low vision. This type of softwares will obviously benefit seniors because elderly people have poor vision and some have unfortunately lost them due to sickness or old age.

AT&T's Mobile Speak is a powerful full-fledged screen reader that offers an easy-to-learn command structure. This software also offers intuitive speech feedback in several languages, and Braille support that can be used with or without speech.

This special screen reader for mobile phones for seniors automatically detects information that the blind user should know in a similar way a user with full sight would easily find highlighted items or key areas of the screen at a glance.

Mobile Speak supports these applications and functions:

Speed dial, call lists and contacts

Text messaging

Calendar, tasks, notes, and calculator

Internet browser

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint

Voice Recorder, Media Player, voice speed dial and voice command

Phone/device settings, profiles, alarms, and ringtones

These are the curently supported devices which can be good mobile phones for seniors:

Cingular 3125

Nokia N75

Nokia E62

Samsung Blackjack (with Windows Mobile version 5)

Pantech Duo

There is no doubt that this software can enhance any mobile device that is designed for senior citizens. The ability to make it easier for seniors to read information is a key attribute for any cell phone for seniors. I will feature more softwares and services that are meant for seniors in my next posts.

Instant messenger has always been very useful to communicate between friends and colleagues over the internet. In the past we had to install softwares like the yahoo messenger or the Gtalk or the MSM messenger, then they became imbeded in the websites (Yahoo messenger inside your browser), so no more installation on your systems.

Although these tools are helpful, but many employers or companies does not allow interacting via internet messenger as this would employess open to interact with friends or people outside the organisation, thus unproductive time. So even if you want to communicate on some official stuff to you colleague within the organisation, you can either call or drop in a email.

Well there is an alternative option which is designed to work over an office network rather than the Internet. Its called the IP Messenger which would help you keep everyone in your organisation in touch. This tool allows you to chat on LAN or network with other people if they are using the same software. The software itself is very simple and light.

Free to download and it take less than a minute to install. It also allows file and folder transfer along the network. So install it and it easy to message via LAN network. The tool also supports languages like Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese.

Juniper Research released a very positive report on the growth of mobile banking from now till 2011, today. According to the research, subscribers will grow tenfold from now till 2011 to ultimately be 816 million (this is very close to the predictions made by Edgar Dunn (see my comments on this here). In addition transactions will increase from 2.7 billion to 37 billion during the same time.

What I found particularly interesting about this report is that the analysts tried to not only predict number of subscribers, but also number of transactions. This is of course important because it is an indication of how much banking will be used. I have done some quick calculations of the findings and this is what I found:

The prediction is that every subscriber would (on average) do more than three banking transaction per month on their mobile. I found this to be quite low based on the experience that we have had with Fundamo deployments. We have seen transaction volumes that is as high as three transactions a day (or even higher).

The volume of transactions will have to more than double every year to grow to these volumes. If the hockey-stick is more steep, growth could even be more spectacular.

Seems like we should be expecting some very interesting times in mobile banking.

This is something that have always intrigued me. Everyone that knows would agree that none of the countries that constitute the Eurozone is the same. Especially if one were to consider the different payment solutions and customer orientation towards these, one observe massive differences. Some countries are still heavily dependent on cash payments, while others have installed sophisticated PIN-based payment systems. In some it is acceptable to do Internet payments and in others cheques are still in circulation.

Especially, if one were to consider mobile payments, differences are even more distinct. Initiatives in Nordic areas are not at all comparable to what is happening in Austria nor some of the great work happening in the Iberia peninsula. The challenges regarding money supply and cost of doing business are all different from one country to another.

So here is my question: "How can you regulate all these different countries with the same banking regulation?"

At the recent CTIA 2008, Nokia released its N810 WiMAX edition, which is an upgraded version of the original Nokia N810 internet tablet. This is Nokia’s first device engineered to take advantage of new wide-area high-speed mobile WiMAX networks. The WiMAX Edition of N810 features a 4.13 inch touch screen along with a slider QWERTY keyboard.

A host of popular addons, including IM, Skype, Google Talk and Gizmo5 are available. This would give it an edge on the Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology. It also has the newly updated OS2008, which includes support for Chinese characters showing up in the browser , an enhanced e-mail client , RSS feeds. The N810 WiMAX comes with 2GB of internal memory and a microSD expansion slot.

The Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition can easily transform itself into a fully featured personal navigation device, complete with real-time on-screen maps. the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition can also access the Internet over Wi-Fi or via conventional cellular data networks by pairing to a compatible mobile phone via Bluetooth technology.

By delivering the kind of open internet experience that consumers previously only expected on a desktop PC, the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition is a compelling example of how next generation broadband wireless technology will not only change the way people think about the Internet, it will change the very nature of the Internet itself.

The Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition is expected to be available in the United States during the summer of 2008 in areas where WiMAX connectivity is available.

We even ran a series of ratios explaining the "real stuff" vs. "landfill stuff" situation. Our centerpiece pitted the ultimate real asset, gold, against the ultimate American icon, Harley-Davidson. When we showed you this ratio six months ago, it was around 17 and trending higher – the price of gold was far outperforming Harley shares. Since then, Harley has lost an additional 23%. Gold has

The potential of senior citizens as a niche for mobile phone services became evident with the release of the Jitterbug cell phone that marketed as a simple device for the elderly. Mobile phone carriers have now launch programs directed towards seniors. These programs have also proven to be valuable not only to the elderly but also to those who have some sort of disability. Let us take a general look at the mobile phone services that are devoted to seniors.

Verizon Wireless is one of the carriers who have expanded on the concept of a cell phone for seniors. The carrier marketed it's own handset for older folks known as the Verizon Coupe or the UTStarcom Coupe 8630. This phone turned out to be popular even though it's a simple handset. It turned out that some consumers were not very interested in modern services like V CAST videos.

The carrier supplemented the Coupe with a wireless plan that is designed explicitly for seniors. Called the Verizon Nationwide 65 Plus offers 200 anytime minutes and 500 nights and weekends minutes for a monthly fee of only thirty dollars. Only seniors with the appropriate a proof of age can get this plan.

Sprint Nextel also made some steps to take advantage of the senior citizen market. However, the carrier opted to take a different approach and do not market to the elderly directly. Instead the carrier targets "basic communicators" and "voice dependents." These consumers are interested in no-frills handsets that are devoted to making calls.

Music downloads, web surfing and other high-end features are not the priority of these users. Sprint's Nextel Direct Connect phones like the Motorola ic502 have proven to be popular to seniors because they need to push one button to connect to family and friends.

Other Sprint phones that are not part of the Nextel Direct Connect like the Samsung M300 and Sanyo Katana II are considered good mobile phones for seniors. These handsets are no frills basic phones with big buttons that are ideal for frail persons.

Unlike Sprint, AT&T has been more aggressive in their campaign to attract senior cell phone users. For instance, the carrier launched the Senior Nation 200 plan which rivals Verizon's Nationwide 65 Plus as the best plan for the elderly. This plan offers similar features and pricing as Verizon's senior plan.

AT&T effort to reach senior cell phone users are not limited to wireless plans. The carrier has also embraced Universal Design. This is the practice of designing products and applications that are usable by the broadest possible range of consumers including the elderly.

This approach produced two senior-friendly products called the Mobile Magnifier and Mobile Speak. These are dessign to be beneficial for both customers with disabilities and senior citizens. Mobile Magnifier is a full-screen magnification application that helps users with poor eyesight while Mobile Speak is a screen reader that helps blind users detect useful information.

These are just some of the programs that have been created to cater to the needs of seniors. I'm sure that carriers will continue to develop devices and programs that will help senior citizens. I will feature this services in my future posts.

The potential of senior citizens as a niche for mobile phone services became evident with the release of the Jitterbug cell phone that marketed as a simple device for the elderly. Mobile phone carriers have now launch programs directed towards seniors. These programs have also proven to be valuable not only to the elderly but also to those who have some sort of disability. Let us take a general look at the mobile phone services that are devoted to seniors.

Verizon Wireless is one of the carriers who have expanded on the concept of a cell phone for seniors. The carrier marketed it's own handset for older folks known as the Verizon Coupe or the UTStarcom Coupe 8630. This phone turned out to be popular even though it's a simple handset. It turned out that some consumers were not very interested in modern services like V CAST videos.

The carrier supplemented the Coupe with a wireless plan that is designed explicitly for seniors. Called the Verizon Nationwide 65 Plus offers 200 anytime minutes and 500 nights and weekends minutes for a monthly fee of only thirty dollars. Only seniors with the appropriate a proof of age can get this plan.

Sprint Nextel also made some steps to take advantage of the senior citizen market. However, the carrier opted to take a different approach and do not market to the elderly directly. Instead the carrier targets "basic communicators" and "voice dependents." These consumers are interested in no-frills handsets that are devoted to making calls.

Music downloads, web surfing and other high-end features are not the priority of these users. Sprint's Nextel Direct Connect phones like the Motorola ic502 have proven to be popular to seniors because they need to push one button to connect to family and friends.

Other Sprint phones that are not part of the Nextel Direct Connect like the Samsung M300 and Sanyo Katana II are considered good mobile phones for seniors. These handsets are no frills basic phones with big buttons that are ideal for frail persons.

Unlike Sprint, AT&T has been more aggressive in their campaign to attract senior cell phone users. For instance, the carrier launched the Senior Nation 200 plan which rivals Verizon's Nationwide 65 Plus as the best plan for the elderly. This plan offers similar features and pricing as Verizon's senior plan.

AT&T effort to reach senior cell phone users are not limited to wireless plans. The carrier has also embraced Universal Design. This is the practice of designing products and applications that are usable by the broadest possible range of consumers including the elderly.

This approach produced two senior-friendly products called the Mobile Magnifier and Mobile Speak. These are dessign to be beneficial for both customers with disabilities and senior citizens. Mobile Magnifier is a full-screen magnification application that helps users with poor eyesight while Mobile Speak is a screen reader that helps blind users detect useful information.

These are just some of the programs that have been created to cater to the needs of seniors. I'm sure that carriers will continue to develop devices and programs that will help senior citizens. I will feature this services in my future posts.

This is something about the Mobile banking and payment (MB&P - I have decided to acronymise this term now, because I use it such a lot) industry. We have more than our fair share of people and companies that make claims that is so far removed from what is possible and also what they are obviously capable of. This is possibly because such a lot of people have turned MB&P into something romantic - the next big thing...

One of the best know examples of a nude emperor were of course Simpay. While this organisation were busy with grand schemes in Europe, many were modeling their strategies on what Simpay was supposed to deliver. Many millions of dollars were spent on this grand plan that most of the industry was expecting to come true. I recall companies that were basing their whole product strategy on the assumption that Simpay would have dictated the standards for mobile payments. Yet for a lot of us (especially those that were intimately involved with the industry), we did not see any clothes. We did say so, but not too loudly, because others were looking strange at us.

There are other examples, I believe. Some with grand plans and ever more spectacular visions. Who will be brave enough to name them this time round. Well, let me give you a clue: A nude emperor this time round have a name that starts with F and have just been acquired by a company with a name that starts with Q.

Source: John Mauldin - Frontline Weekly NewsletterJohn Mauldin, Best-Selling author and recognized financial expert, is also editor of the free Thoughts From the Frontline that goes to over 1 million readers each week. For more information on John or his FREE weekly economic letter go to: http://www.frontlinethoughts.com/learnmore

After featuring wireless phones for seniors in this blog, I felt it's time for a bit of variety. So I decided to post about another mobile phone plan for senior citizens. A few weeks ago, I already posted about Verizon's Nationwide 65 Plus wireless plan for senior citizens. Now I'll blog about AT&T's version.

AT&T launched the Senior Nation 200 plan soon after Verizon released a special plan for the elderly. This was a logical plan for AT&T because allowing Verizon to run a monopoly on the senior wireless plan market might be a mistake. Both of these carriers are on top of the mobile phone service industry so it's not unusual for them to mirror each others programs.

AT&T's Senior Nation 200 Plan is designed to a offer cost-effective solution for seniors who want to stay in touch with friends and family. It offers a special price of $29.99 a month for the elderly. 200 00 Anytime Minutes, 500 Night & Weekend Minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling are included in this special plan.

Like most plans from AT&T, this plan offers no roaming or long distance fees. Elderly consumers will get three-way calling, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting, and basic voice mail as included features in this plan. Senior customers are required to pay a one time $36.00 activation fee, and may pay an extra $.45 per minute for additional minutes. They also have to agree to a two-year contract commitment and present proof that are 65 years old or older.

Andy Wilson, AT&T's vice president of wireless consumer marketing made this comment regarding this special mobile phone plan, "AT&T provides service plans that focus on customer value, competitive pricing and convenient ways of keeping in touch. A voice package designed specifically for seniors helps make friends and loved ones across the country seem closer."

Compared to Verizon's mobile phone plan for seniors, AT&T's version is pretty much similar. They both offer 200 minutes for the about the same price. The features and benefits are also similar. I guess the choice boils down to the network's reliability or to your preference. Overall, it seems to me that AT&T's Senior Nation 200 plan is a great and benefificial cell phone plan for seniors.

After featuring wireless phones for seniors in this blog, I felt it's time for a bit of variety. So I decided to post about another mobile phone plan for senior citizens. A few weeks ago, I already posted about Verizon's Nationwide 65 Plus wireless plan for senior citizens. Now I'll blog about AT&T's version.

AT&T launched the Senior Nation 200 plan soon after Verizon released a special plan for the elderly. This was a logical plan for AT&T because allowing Verizon to run a monopoly on the senior wireless plan market might be a mistake. Both of these carriers are on top of the mobile phone service industry so it's not unusual for them to mirror each others programs.

AT&T's Senior Nation 200 Plan is designed to a offer cost-effective solution for seniors who want to stay in touch with friends and family. It offers a special price of $29.99 a month for the elderly. 200 00 Anytime Minutes, 500 Night & Weekend Minutes and unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling are included in this special plan.

Like most plans from AT&T, this plan offers no roaming or long distance fees. Elderly consumers will get three-way calling, call forwarding, caller ID, call waiting, and basic voice mail as included features in this plan. Senior customers are required to pay a one time $36.00 activation fee, and may pay an extra $.45 per minute for additional minutes. They also have to agree to a two-year contract commitment and present proof that are 65 years old or older.

Andy Wilson, AT&T's vice president of wireless consumer marketing made this comment regarding this special mobile phone plan, "AT&T provides service plans that focus on customer value, competitive pricing and convenient ways of keeping in touch. A voice package designed specifically for seniors helps make friends and loved ones across the country seem closer."

Compared to Verizon's mobile phone plan for seniors, AT&T's version is pretty much similar. They both offer 200 minutes for the about the same price. The features and benefits are also similar. I guess the choice boils down to the network's reliability or to your preference. Overall, it seems to me that AT&T's Senior Nation 200 plan is a great and benefificial cell phone plan for seniors.

The term “tridgets” made their debut in Barcelona, meaning mobile devices that depend 100% on the network for all controls and data. The term was coined (invented) by some-one in Accenture and it has been used in good slogans: "The first trillion tridgets".

As an aside, I was wondering where the inspiration for the name came from, when I found this little piece on the web:

"There were exactly fifty Tridgets, separated like stars on an American flag, perched upright, balancing skillfully on pegs that protruded from an angled board near the back of the booth. They looked soft, like chipmunks, no more than five inches tall. They had fur of variable designs. Some were spotted, some were striped, some were calico and some were patchy, with dominant colors of light grey, white or tan and accent colors ranging from bright orange to deep blue.

They had little pug, almost human faces, with little noses that curled slightly up. Their bulging eyes were blue, green or hazel. They all had tight, curly, tails that were similar, but fatter and much furrier than that of a pig. Perhaps the most adorable thing about these little fuzz balls were the large pointed ears, bent at different angles just below the tips. " see webpage

Little "fuzz balls"?

Anyhow, I tried to understand the implication of our banking software now not just being available on mobiles, but also on Tridgets. This means we can now start talking of Tridge banking?

Most would agree that doing payments or banking is not fun. It is not something that we would do if we could help it. (Well, maybe with the exception of receiving payments!). To provide sexy banking services is a contradiction in terms in my book. This is one of the reasons why mobile banking and payments will never prove to be successful unless it can be used for something, ... well sexy.

The mobile banking and payment industry refer to these things that you can do with mobile banking and payments as the "killer applications". Giving access to your consumers to "killer applications" that they can pay for easily on their mobile phone is the trigger (and key) to a successful mobile banking/payment implementation. In this blog-post, I list a few categories of what applications have been "killing" and which ones are likely to "kill" in the future.

The most frequently quoted killer application is the ability to buy pre-paid airtime directly from your bank account using a mobile phone. I have heard some observers talk of this as being not that sexy, but some of the case studies are immense and only thing I would say is:"ignore air-time purchases at your own peril"

Others that have already been implemented and have proved to be successful are bill payments (low margins are the biggest challenge here), cash on delivery (big money here), payment for parking (requires enough cars and less parking to work - not the case in many countries), some examples of retail payments, payments for content and other pre-paid (e.g. pre-paid electricity).

Payment for the purchase of lottery tickets and other gambling applications have been implemented by a few operators, but it is my opinion that this has not proved to be that successful. I am of the opinion that this is because we have not yet figured out how to do this effectively on mobile phones - so that it works for the new form factor. Many people have ideas on how to turn this into killing applications, but I have not seen them yet.

Others that should also be mentioned in this blog are of course money remittance. Many examples of this type of application have been deployed with good successes. The challenge in this area is working with regulatory constraints and to turn localised deployments into global deployments.

Other killers that I sense are lurking will come from micro lending, export/import, other financial services and many niche applications (like transport, medical, content etc.)

It is a common saying that security is only as secure as it is perceived to be. It is quite possible to develop many different security solutions that can protect what it is supposed to protect economically. (The cost of the system is less than the fraud that could be committed in the absence of the system)

Unfortunately this is not the criteria for a successful security solution that will be deployed and used. Rather it is if the security solution is perceived to be secure. In the case of mobile banking, the question should be asked "perceived by who?" and "what will convince them that it is secure enough?"

In the case of mobile banking, I would like to argue that it is not end-consumers that are the primary evaluaters of security. The key is not to ensure that end-consumers perceive mobile banking as secure, but rather bankers. In my experience, it is the banking fraternity that are uncomfortable with mobile banking security more often than not. Only if they are made to be comfortable with the security is it possible to launch a mobile banking solutions. Even when the end-consumer would have been happy long-ago, or even if the security solution can be proven to be economically sound, bankers will still resist.

So what is it that banks look for in a mobile banking solution:

Conforming to banking standards. Banks are comfortable if some-one else says something is secure (VISA or the PCI etc.) Problem is that few of these standards exists that can be applied directly to mobile banking. Also read this blog-entry.

Bankers like security if it looks like the security that they know and understand. They like PIN-blocks that are never stored and is never in the clear. They like digital security keys where the master keys are well-managed (preferably by a bank or a banking body)

Bankers like security where the liabilities are clearly defined in the case if something do go wrong.

Bankers like security systems where all of the functionality/components are under the direct control of the bank

Generally bankers are not enthused by maverick, sharp and innovative solutions to manage security, but rather using tried and tested approaches that can be mapped to existing procedures and internal banking rules.

In deploying mobile banking solutions, it is critical to keep this in mind.

Mobile payments is an interesting concept. I have heard a lot of people talking about how making payments from a cellphone could be earth-shattering - how it would change the way that people shop and do business for ever. And I believe that they are right, but in order to make this vision happen we have to solve a difficult problem... where is the money?

No, I don't mean, how we are going to make money by running a mobile payment scheme. I mean, what are people going to use as money to pay with. If they complete a transaction and they hit "send" (or "pay") where will the money come from to do this payment. To put it in another way: "which account will be debited". Many different solutions have been suggested and implemented, but all have significant challenges. Below is a summary of some of the Value Stores that could be used as the money in mobile payments:

Using an existing credit card as the source for doing a mobile payment would seem to be the most obvious approach. This has successfully been implemented, but suffers from the following challenges: A relatively small percentage of people with mobile phones have credit cards globally, the transaction can be expensive as credit card fees must be paid before any other revenue can be generated and the rigid (but sound) rules regarding fraud places a very big risk on such an approach.

Using the mobile operator's billing engine as the source for payments have been proposed, but this approach can even be more expensive than credit card transactions. (See one of my previous blogs) . In addition, expect regulatory problems and significant challenges to extract cash out of the system. It is also unlikely that the mobile operator would be happy with sharing money earmarked for telecommunications with other retailers.

Utilising existing bank accounts could be interesting, but integrating telecommunication systems to core banking systems can be expensive and time-consuming. Also the strain on a banking system when millions of small transactions starts hitting it, can be outside the design limits of such a system.

A new dedicated mCommerce account may be the way to go. Remember that when credit cards (a new payment system) were launched in the 1970's, it came with its own dedicated account management system. Why should that not be the case for mobile payments?

Amazon.com has launched a new service that enables consumers to find and buy products sold by Amazon using text messaging. Its called Amazon TextBuyIt. This would be a great way of shopping if you are on a move and cannot go online on the amazon site to buy out stuff. This free service lets you search for an item using keywords, such as those in an Amazon web search, get pricing and then buy an item from the search results. The item price and total order amount will be exactly the same as you would see on the Amazon.com website when viewing normal catalog items.

How does it work ? Well simple.. All you need to do is simply text message the keyword of the product, UPC or ISBN to 262966 ("AMAZON") and they’ll text back with matching products details. Then you simply reply with the item number to buy the item. And if you don't want to buy the product you can simply use this service to check for the prices on amazon. This service is available to any mobile phone capable of sending and receiving text messages. Amazon TextBuyIt will call your mobile phone to confirm shipping and payment information with you before completing your order.

Any item sold by Amazon.com can be purchased through TextBuyIt. Items that are not in stock or unavailable for any other reason will not be included in your TextBuyIt search results.

ABSA is a leading retail bank in South Africa with a good mobile banking solution deployed. They were one of the first companies that have deployed mobile banking solutions in the world and have managed to grow their subscriber based to a substantial size. The solution has been developed and is supported by and internal team and is a very advanced deployment compared to world standards.

In order to improve security, ABSA recently deployed an SMS alert to their Internet Subscribers whenever the subscriber logs into the Internet Banking site. This means that a subscriber gets a SMS as soon as a successfullogin has been done.

An interesting side-effect of this deployment is that subscribers to their mobile banking service now gets multiple SMS's confirming that the user has logged on whenever a transaction is done on the mobile phone. This leads me to the following conclusions:

The ABSA cellphone banking application sits on top of the Internet banking application and requires a login for every transaction

The benefit of dual channel confirmation for an Internet login with mobile confirmation, turns into an irritation when the same confirmation is utilised for mobile banking

Security techniques for the Internet (especially when utilising the phone) is not directly applicable on mobile banking

It is a risky architectural design to bolt mobile banking onto an existing Internet banking application

We have all lived through an amazing journey to see how fast mobile phones have grown in popularity. Many reasons for this massive growth have been given, ranging from the communication needs to fashion-awareness. One of the reasons for this growth in my opinion is that phones are so easy to use. I know that some people will disagree with me, but fact is that the majority of people use phones without (ever) reverting to a manual, having to go on mobile phone usage training or requiring assistance from family or friend. (Very different to what we have got used to in the Personal Computer Space).

So why is it that phones are so easy to use?

Usability design and testing has around as a formal discipline for the best part of twenty years. Mobile phone manufacturers (all of them) take usability very serious. Every design and every model usually go through rigorous usability testing cycles. Results are fed back into the design and never will a phone be released without a green light from the usability guru's. Industry advances and standards have made big leaps in this space. Techniques like the Mobile Phone Usability Questionnaire(MPUQ), the Usability Checklist for Mobile phones and many others are utilised in the design of mobile phones

Just a thought: how frequently have your mobile banking application and solutions been tested (or designed) for usability? have you contracted a supplier with a track record and capability to build mobile banking solutions that are usable?

I believe that this is the single most important reason why mobile banking applications are not being used as extensively as they could/should be. Most mobile banking applications have not been designed with due insight in and proper application of mobile usability techniques.

SoftMaker Office 2008 for Pocket PCs was recently released its new beta version. This version comes after fixing various bugs from the previous versions and with few improvements like the SoftMaker presentations which now allows you to insert sound files.

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